Court in Russia fines Telegram $14,000 for refusing to cooperate with FSB

A district court in Moscow fined Telegram $14,000 for their refusal to give the Security Service of Russia (FSB) information for “decoding” messages of the users, according to Interfax.

The court found Telegram guilty of an administrative offence committed as the messenger refused to cooperate with the FSB.

It is explained that the FSB sent Telegram an inquiry to submit data on decoding messages on July 12, 2017. The inquiry was to be fulfilled by July 16, but Telegram didn’t do it. The FSB was interested in users of six phone numbers using Telegram.

The law suit against the company was filed on September 27. The founder of Telegram Pavel Durov said they were accused of violating the law, according to which the company is obliged to give Russian law enforcers information about its users.